Thursday, January 20, 2011

Women Artists in 19th Century FranceThe Metropolitan Museum of Art website has an absorbing article (and slide show) about French women artists in the 19th century — makes you appreciate their extraordinary work even more.

Drift DeckFrom BLDGBLOG: "The Drift Deck, produced in 2008 by Julian Bleecker and Dawn Lozzi, is "an algorithmic puzzle game used to navigate city streets," offering "instructions that guide you as you drift about the city." Intriguing idea.

Radiohead Played By MachinesA fantastic little video featuring vintage technology playing the song Nude by Radiohead. Inventive, fun and wonderfully imaginative.

A Dining Room's Feast for the EyesA stunning dining room floor mosaic was discovered in 1996 during highway construction in Lod, a town 10 miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Dating from circa 300 CE, the mosaic is decorated with beautiful depictions of real and mythical creatures and is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum. For a more indepth look (and great images) check out the Lod Mosaic website. Via ArtsJournal.

The Monkeys You OrderedA site devoted to literal New Yorker captions — that is, painfully obvious clunky captions are devised for the cartoons, rather than something, oh, clever. Quite funny, actually. Via Andrew (thanks!)

Designing With CookiesDesigner Alexandra Lange reflects on how the tradition of holiday cookies is an indication of the design DNA that runs in her family. I'm a little late on this one, but it's such a nice post that I just had to share it anyway. Via Design Observer.

Spray-on FashionThis is like something from the cartoon series Futurama — developed by Dr Manel Torres, his aerosol liquid, when sprayed on to the body, turns into a cotton-like fabric which can be reused and washed while still retaining its original shape and colour. It'll be interesting to see how this evolves. Via Phaidon Edit.

Double Chocolate BrowniesI made these for an after toboggan party last weekend, and they just disappeared. Very decadent and rich — I used dark chocolate instead of bittersweet, and organic whole wheat flour instead of regular flour, and they turned out great. Via Martha Stewart.